The Lighter Side

Here is a collection of random things that were each a bit funny in their own right, but didn't merit their own post.

On Sunday we attended a church in town to celebrate a baptism.  The Bishop was preaching a sermon about the birthday of the church and specifically how the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania has grown over the last 48 years.  The pastor who was translating to me was saying how the Bishop was comparing the church to the tree in Psalm 1.  Like the tree the church needs nutrients/fertilizer/manure to ensure health and growth.  Holy Communion and Baptism provide these important nutrients to the church.  I said to my translator "did he just compare Holy Communion to manure?"  The translator nodded his head and smiled so big.

The weekend before I left for Tanzania - Faye, Nicole and I went out to camp for a synod gathering with some Tanzania friends.  For lunch Nicole tossed her name tag over her shoulder.  On the way back to the conference room the wind started to flap Nicole's name tag around and she felt something on her back and started to jump around trying to get this mysterious critter off her back.  The same thing happened to John the other day, only it was a rooster walking up beside him at a cafe that had him dancing!

We spent the weekend with Pastor Mmanga and his family.  In the car on the way back to Uswaa Pastor turned on the radio.  At first I thought it was the news as it was in English, but eventually I figured out that it was a local pop station and their "topic of the day" was helping a man figure out his love life.  Only they were using much more specific terms than that.  They also included 10 ways to spruce up your romance.  I'm almost positive Pastor Mmanga wasn't paying attention or I think he would have turned it off.  I used all of my strength not to turn to the back seat to look at John because I knew that would cause me to spiral into uncontrollable laughter.

As long as we're on the subject of Pastor Mmanga, here are a few more of his classic lines.  When walking into a really nice coffee shop on Sunday I asked him if this was a place that mostly Mzungu's (white people) hang out.  He looked at me very serious and said "Yes, but I'm still black here."  I informed him that he is black everywhere he goes.  One day Pastor Mmanga was late to pick us up and I asked him why his meeting had gone so long and his reponse was "we had to figure out the circumstances of the situation."  That really cleared things up!  Pastor Mmanga also drives much more carefully when I am in the back seat than when John is.  John is trying to convince himself that Pastor Mmanga doesn't think his expendable!

Finally, we had this nice outdoor tea the other day and I asked Pastor Mmanga to take a picture for me.  As soon as I looked at the picture I told John, "its nice, but I'll never print it because it looks like someone took a pee on the wall behind us!"

Happy Wednesday everyone. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our friends from Southwood! The next 10 days are going to be busy ones - I can't wait!